Asian Inspired Cedar Planked Salmon

The other day, Wednesday I think it was, somebody, can’t remember who, had a post on GreenEggers.com with some salmon. It looked so good and reminded me that Mrs. G and I keep saying we are going to try to eat more fish. So after work, I was off to Central Market to find some fresh fish (and to pick up a few things for my Secret Santa….yeah….you don’t know who you are, but I got you a bunch of goodies and they’ll be heading your way today or tomorrow)

I got home and put the fish in the fridge as we were already planning on meatloaf that night. Still had no plan what I was going to do with it. Thursday, Mr Toad on the Egghead Forum, in response to my shrimp and asparagus post, mentioned that he likes to drizzle teriyaki sauce and sesame seeds on his asparagus. That piqued my interest and now we had a direction…..asian inspired salmon. Thanks Mr. Toad.

I browsed the internet for a while looking for recipes. Nope….don’t have fish sauce. Nope….don’t have oyster sauce. Until I finally found one that looked like a good starting point.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp white wine vinegar (was supposed to be rice vinegar, but we didn’t have any and I wasn’t going to the store)

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp brown sugar, firmly packed

2 tbsp minced onion

2 cloves of garlic, or 1 tbsp of the minced stuff in the jar

That was the basis for my marinade. Whipped it all up and went to taste it and it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, so what can I add from the pantry/fridge to get that flavor profile that I wanted? None of the following was measured at all, just mixed till it got to what I wanted.

a few dashes of mirin

a few dashes of teriyaki sauce

a dash or two (or more depending on your heat tolerance) of sriracha

a bit more mirin

some chili garlic sauce

a drop or three of lemon juice to brighten it all up

and finally a few splashes of Cholula, or whatever hot sauce you prefer, just not Tabasco (yuck)

Whisk it all up and pour it over the salmon in a zip lock bag and place it back into the fridge to marinate. I believe mine marinated for about an hour, but I bet if it went a bit longer it would have been better.

I got my BGE set up for a direct cook and stabilized it at 400F and when it was time to cook, I threw my cedar plank that had been soaking (you did remember to soak your plank for at least 30 minutes, didn’t you?) on for about 3 minutes, just until it starts to smoke. Once it starts to smoke, flip it over and place your salmon on top of it. At this point, I also added some cherry wood chips to give it just a hint of smoke flavor.

Whoops! Forgot to get that bar code off. Shouldn't hurt none.

The salmon in the picture was Atlantic Salmon and according to the fish monger, a serving is 8oz, so the one in the picture is right at a 1lb for the two of us. I let it cook for about 20 minutes, and when it was about done, I threw on the teriyaki asparagus.

Salmon and Asparagus

As you can see, once again we did the asparagus rafts. I find that it makes turning the asparagus easier and you don’t lose any of the little guys to the grill gods. The asparagus took about 5 minutes, flipping once halfway through.

Everything is done

We plated it all up along with some rice.

Plated up and ready to eat

I think it turned out really well. The wife said it was the best salmon I had ever cooked her. It had a nice asian profile, but was not too strong as to over power the fish. It was a quick 30 minute meal that is an easy weeknight cook and best of all, it was healthy. We might say it a bunch, but we all need to eat more fish and seafood, if for no other reason than the health benefits….plus, when its done right, it can be so tasty.